408 924-3555 (if sending material to theinstructor by fax, please also send an email tomake sure he knows it is coming)

2. Course Description:

a. Course Overview and Description:

The catalog summarizes this course as follows:

Integrative capstone seminar analyzing interrelationships of managerialdecisions/actions within and between the firm and its environment. Appliesmulti-disciplinary techniques to diagnose and recommend

actions appropriateto specific company situations, using the case method.

The goals are

•

to sharpen students’ abilities to think critically, logically andstrategically, and

•

tohelp them learn todiagnose situations from a strategic prospective.

The

course requires you to use skills learned in many other courses and in your lifeas a whole to address real business issues in an integrated way. We will studyprinciples of strategic management–

that is, of managing the overall direction of anenterprise or a large part of it. And we will analyze case histories of real managersand how they dealt with real challenges. We’ll ask whether they did well or poorlyand what we might have done differently.

To do this, the course has to bechallenging. It asks you to take the risk ofarticulating opinions on confusing business situations. It asks you to support thoseopinions with the kind of facts that would cause real businesspeople to accept yourarguments. It thus helps you to acquire the tools you will need to play key roles inexisting organizations and to create worthwhile new ones.

Through participation inclass, students can develop their ability to use concepts as tools and apply them toparticularbusinesssituations.

2

The course is a seminar, andthus itdependson the active participation of studentsin class discussion. Much of the formal knowledge about the subject should comefrom the thoughtful home study of the text and assigned supplementary material.Just as businesspeople are evaluated toa significant extent based on thecontributions they make to discussions within their organizations, students will beevaluated to a significant extent based on class participation.

WORK LOAD:

To help students gain the appropriate skills, this has to be ademanding course. Students are urged to scheduleat least 120 hours of homestudy, appropriately distributed over the course, in addition to regular classattendance. This means homework of 6 to 10 hours per week.If you can’t devotethis much time over the next several months, please drop the course thissemester and take it during a semester when you have more time.

b. Prerequisites:

To enroll, students must have completed or be concurrentlyenrolled in all College of Business core courses. Students must have graduatingsenior standing. Fulfilling these requirements requires a student to have completeda100W-level

writing course.

To maximize the diversity of perspectives among thestudents, the instructor may on occasion admit a student from outsidethe Collegeof Business who is completing a business minor. (See instructor for details.)

Students who studyexclusively from the text, without reviewing the Notes

and supplementaryreadings,will not have all the knowledge needed for exams.(Students arenot

required to memorize facts from the cases. If case information is requiredduring exams, you will be able to refer to the cases.)

In addition, all studentsshould

own and regularly use acollege-level

dictionary.You will find this is an indispensable tool in your business career, even if you alsouse web sites such as dictionary.com.

Printed dictionaries and grammar guides (seebelow) seem to create a stronger sense of the English language than web pagesavailable today.

d. Other Reading materials

-

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED:



Regular reading ofThe Wall Street Journal,

New York Times,Financial Timesand/orFortune

magazine.

(Discounted subscriptions will be available.)



Astyle andgrammar guide such asThe Bedford Handbook

(Bedford/St.Martin’s). Many students find this helpful in writing. Some 100W texts can beused as a grammar reference. Some students have found helpful the web pagesoriginallycreated by Prof. Charles Darling of Capital Community College inConnecticut:http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/textonly.htm



TheMartin Luther King Jr. has an excellent collection of on-line databasesavailable athttp://libguides.sjsu.edu/a-z

. These include enormous amounts ofcopyrighted information unavailable through search engines such as Google. Ifyou have not already done so, visit the library and establish a PersonalIdentification Number (PIN) so you can access these databases from off campus.

3

Students may find it helpful to learn about databases from

other students orfrom the instructor.



The Strategic ManagementProjectwill require that you tell where you got yourinformation, using Modern Language Association style. You will probably needto refer toeither

regularly monitoring current business events through theWall St.Journal,New York

Times,

those newspapers’ web sitesand/or otherappropriate sources.

b. Class Participation:As discussed above, class participation is an important partof the Business 189 experience.To obtain a grade of C-

or better in classparticipation, students must contribute actively to the class.1

c.Frequent (at least twice weekly)checking of email

for messages frominstructor, and following announced changes in schedule or assignments–

plusemail checking as necessary for communication with members of yourStrategicManagement Project

team(see below).

d.Quizzes:

There will be a major quiz in the early in the semester and two to fourunannounced pop quizzes.Pop quizzes may occur any time except when anassignment in the syllabus states reading may be “skimmed.”

If you areabsent, youcannotmake up

pop quizzes. Quizzes will be mostly objectivequestions.

e. Exams:

There will be a midterm and a final exam. Tests will include bothobjective and essay questions.

Pre-announced final exam question:

An

important part of the final examwill be a question requiring you to read a short case you have not seenbefore. It is likely to require you to answer questions like: “How well do youthink this company is doing? What factors in the firm and in its industrymake continued success easier (or more difficult)?”

Think about how youabout how you would answer these questions aboutvarious companies we study, using the theoretical concepts we will discuss inclass.

You must use theoretical concepts discussedin class to get a gradeofC+ or betteron the exam question. Thinking about the cases we discusswillhelp you organize the material in the course to prepare for the final exam.

f. Project:

The Strategic Management Project requires students to work in

a group,playing the role of junior analysts in a top consulting firm, analyzing a company.Details will be handed out in class, and will be available on the instructor’s web site.The Strategic Management Project requires regular meetings with and

1

A few students find speaking in class to be very difficult. If you are that kind of student, it

is possible toparticipate in class by sending analytical emails to the professor discussing the study questions that appearin the syllabus. The objective, whether you speak in class or participate by email, is to demonstrate theabilities that would make you a valuable participantin strategic discussions within a real company.

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email contact with members of a team. Students mustmeet teamdeadlines.Failure to perform professionally in your group will result in

severe

grade penalties and can easily result in failing the course.

4. Grades:

Major quiz on the first sessions of thecourse

7%

Brief quizzes on reading assignments

5%

Term project (50% group, 50%individual allocation)

28%

Reactions to others term projects

2%

Class Participation, especially casediscussion participation

16%

Midterm

14%

Final Exam

28%

Total

100%

a. Grading information:

Grading Percentage Breakdown

94% and above

A

93%-

90%

A-

89%-

87%

B+

86%-

84%

B

83%-

80%

B-

79%-

77%

C+

76%-

74%

C

73%-

70%

C-

69%-

67.5%

D+

67%-

65%

D

64%-

60%

D-

below 60%

F

b. Penalty for late or missed work:Late work can receivesevere

penalties,typically two half grade steps per week of lateness (e.g., a B paper turned in a weeklate is likely to receive a C+; two weeks late it will receive a C-). If you need extratime on a major assignment, consultwith the instructor early. In any case,it isstillmuchbetter to turn in work late than not to turn it in at all.

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5. University, College, and Department Policy Information:

a) Academic integrity statement (from Office of Judicial Affairs):

“Your owncommitment to learning, as evidenced by your enrollment at

San José State University and the University’s Academic Integrity

Policy requires you to be honest in all your academic course work.

Faculty are required to report all infractions to the Office ofJudicial Affairs.

The policy on academic integrity can be found athttp://www2.sjsu.edu/senate/S04-12.pdf

“

INSTRUCTOR’S ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY

In accordance with the policies of SanJose State University, theCollege of Business, and the Department of Organization andManagement,

no academic dishonesty will be tolerated

in thiscourse. Any evidence of cheating on an exam or plagiarism onany written work will normally result in a grade of “F” beingassigned. (Plagiarism isany

is plagiarism. Moreinformation on plagiarism and how to avoid it is available at

the San Jose State University library web site:

http://www.sjlibrary.org/services/literacy/info_comp/plagiarism.htm.)

In addition to resulting in a grade of“F,”

academic dishonestywill also result in a report being made to the San Jose StateUniversity Office of Student Affairs. This willproduceanotation on the student’s permanent record.A second offensewill typically result in expulsion from the university.

b)

Campus policy in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act:

“If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a

disability, or if youneed special arrangements in case the building

must be evacuated, please make anappointment with me

as soon as

possible, or see me during office hours.Presidential Directive 97-03

requires that students with disabilities register with DRCto establish a

record of their disability.”

c) College of Business Policies and Procedures:

To ensure that every student, current and future, who takes courses in theBoccardo Business Center,

has the opportunity to experience an environmentthat is safe, attractive, and otherwise conducive to learning, the College of Businessat San José State has established the following policies:

Eating:

Eating and drinking (except water) are prohibited in the Boccardo Business Center.

Students who disrupt the course by eating and do not leave the building will bereferred to the Judicial Affairs Officer of the University.

Cell Phones:

Students will turn their cell phones off or put them on vibrate mode while in class.

They will not answer their phones, send, or receive text messages in class.

Students whose phones disrupt the course and do not stop when requested by theinstructor will be referred to the Judicial Affairs Officer of the University.

6

Computer Use:

In the classroom,the instructorallows

students to use computers only for class-related activities.

These include taking notes on the lecture underway

and findingWeb sitesrelevant to questions being discussed.

Searching the web for informationrelevant to the current lecture or case discussionis

considered relevant in the sameway that it would be relevant in a business meeting in a real company.Students

who use their

computers for other activities or who abuse the equipment in anyway, at a minimum, will be asked to leave the class and lose participation points forthe day, and, at a maximum, will be referred to the Judicial Affairs Officer of theUniversity for disrupting the course.

Students are urged to report to theirinstructors computer use that they regard as inappropriate (i.e.,use

for activitiesthat are not class related).

6. TWO SPECIAL NOTES:

•You are responsible for understanding the policies and procedures aboutadd/drops, academic renewal, withdrawal, etc. found athttp://www2.sjsu.edu/senate/S04-12.pdf

•If you would like to include in your paper any material you have submitted, orplan to submit, for another class, please note that SJSU’s Academic Integrity policyS04-12 requires approval by instructors.

Because the concepts of internal analysis are so central to strategicmanagement,today we skip ahead to Chapter 4.

Required Reading:

Hill & Jones, Chapter 4

Please read pp. 77-86and 100-103 with care. The ideas in

these pages are crucial tothe course. It is OK to skim pp. 86 (bottom) to 100 (top).This section contains many important ideas, but they relate totopics covered in other business school courses. Do read thebox, “Learning Effects in Cardiac Surgery,” on p. 89.

Note 5: “Resources, Capabilities, and Distinctive Competences”

Practicing Strategic Management:Inthe initialgroup

you formed,identify

a business that hashadsustained a competitiveadvantage

for approximately ten years or more. Tell why theadvantage lasted so long. Do this by finding two

or morearticles, at least one of them with

detailed

information,

discussing the sources of the firm’s competitive advantages.

Appropriate articles are usually found in

major businessmagazines or newspapers.Web articles are acceptable, butyou will often find better quality articles on a topic like this inmagazines

(or magazines’ web sites) than on the Web.

A good approach to this assignment is to look in back issuesorweb sitesof magazines suchasFortune,

Forbes,

orBusinessWeek

for an article that will tell whyone

company’s advantage

9

has persisted.This means it may be a good idea to lookfor the articlesbefore deciding which company to study.

Write a summary of the reasons the company achievedsustained competitive advantage, not to exceedthree

pages.

Strategic Management Project:Review the handout on the StrategicManagement Project. Think about whom you might like to work within a permanent group and what company you might like your groupto study.We will organizepermanent

groups in the second half ofclassnext week.You donot

have to study the same company for theStrategic Management Project as you wrote up for theabove

assignment.(In fact, it is better if some groups study less successfulcompanies.)

If you believe IKEA has distinctive competences, whatdo you believe caused them to emerge? (Note:

Youmay want to consider your experiences in visiting IKEAor its competitors as you think about these questions.You may also want to discuss them with others in theclass.)

Formation of Permanent Groups

Strategic Management Project:Select a company you intend to studythroughout the term. This doesnot

have to be the same companyyou studied for the discussion last week.

For next week, you will find the company’sannual report

and bring itto class.If the annual report does not include information on profits(often called “net income” in the annual report) forat least five years,also bring a copy of the firm’s Form 10K. In most cases these canboth be downloaded from the firm’s web site.You will find it is mucheasier to work with these documents if you print them out beforeclass. However, if the 10K is very long it is OK to bring it in digitalform on someone’s laptop. We will use these documents next weekfor financial analysis in class.

10

Next week you willboth study for a major quiz and bring yourcompany’s annual report/10K form.

Because many of the topics on pp. 86-100 of the text (Ch. 4) reallybelong in other courses, it was OK to skim them. However, that doesnot mean we don’t need to think about functional-level strategy.Today we will discuss a few concepts relevant to functional-levelstrategy, and then discuss a case which illustrates it well.You willbe required to understand what a “functional unit” and a “functionalstrategy” are (see Note 7

in the course packet), and to understandthe concepts of “economies of scale”(p. 87) and “learning effects”(p. 88-89) from the text section on “Increasing

At the beginning of the course we talked about strategic planning, emergentstrategy, and strategic intent. Which are important at Replacements

Ltd.? Which, if any, do you think Bob Page should pay more attentionto?

What are the “rules of the game” inside Replacements? Shouldmanagers be trying to change them? Who (if anyone) has the powerto change them?

Part Two

Business-level Strategy

and Competitive Positioning

Required reading:Hill & Jones, Chapter 5

11

Practicing Strategic Management:As a

group,findtwo

or moreexamples of companies pursuing one or more of the genericbusiness-level strategies. What strategies are they pursuing? What are somechoices have they made to support the strategy? What are theadvantages and disadvantages?Each group should bring two ormore articles to class, representing at least two genericstrategies.Each person should have a copy of at least one andhave notes that will allow him or her to answer these threequestions about it.

Because there is a lot of group work duethis week

and next,you are NOT required to write up yourconclusions

this time.

Strategic Management Project:CompleteModule A, dealing with Chapter3, an analysis of the external environment of your organization.

Meanwhile,review Module B and begin working on it.Module B is a difficultassignment, requiring you toidentify(at least provisionally)whetheryour firm has any distinctive competencies. Be sure to startdiscussing it this week.

Session 7.Section 12

–

Tuesday March 15, 2011

Session 8. Section 8

–

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

PartOne

Case discussion:3M

Required reading:“3M in 2006” (Hill & Jones, pp. C69-C84)

Study questions:What is 3M’s generic strategy? Is it a good choice?What elements of 3M’s internal systems support this strategy? Couldyou imagine 3M succeeding with its strategy if it did not have thosesystems?

Can you imagine a company competing with 3M with adifferent

generic strategy? Can you think of any companies that do? Howwould a company be structured to do that?

Then,write a good first draft of the final report’s StrategicIntroduction.

Session10.Section 12–

April 12, 2011

Session 11. Section 8

–

April 13, 2011

Part One

Strategy in the Global Environment

Required reading:

Hill & Jones, Chapter 6, pp.137-139, 144-152 (only)

Part Two

Case discussion:Apple Computer(in Hill & Jones text, pp. C17-C32–

the“C” pages are in the back)

Optional Reading:“The iPhone” (in packet)

Study questions:

What distinctive competenciesdoes Apple have?Whatstrategic actions contributed to their emergence?

13

Does the environment of thepersonal computerindustryand the musicplayer industrymake it possible for a single company to remaindominant over the long term?Why or why not?

How will the global dimensions of competition affect Apple’s future success?(Although the emergence of Android,iPad, and rival tablets are notmuch covered in the readings, we will discuss them in class.)

Strategic Management Project:Turn in the material you worked on lastweek.

Session 11.

Section 12-

April 19, 2011

Session 12.Section 8-

April 20, 2011

Part

One

Corporate Strategy(and Long-Run Profitability)

Required reading:

Hill & Jones, Chapter 7;Ch. 8, pp. 189-195.

PartTwo

Two cases incorporate strategy

Required reading:“Pharmacia & Upjohn” (in packet)

Study questions:Why did the managers of Upjohn decide to diversify?

Why did they ultimately decide to merge with Pharmacia?

Do you agree with their decisions about diversifying? about merging?

Do you think they might have done better for theirstockholders andotherstakeholders if they had adopted different approaches?What different approaches would you have recommended?

Required reading:Review the United Technologies case at the end ofChapter 7 of the text (pp. 185-186)

Study questions:

Why is United Technologies (UTC) able to prosper whenother conglomerates have been broken up?

Strategic Management Project:Complete Module E, an analysis of thecorporate-level strategy of the company.

Part Two

Business Achievement Test

–

This test helps San Jose State evaluate howmuch students have learned over the course of a degree program. It doesnot count toward your grade, but please try to do well. The results of theBAT are used by employers to evaluate which programs they should hirefrom.

Session 14.Section 8

–

May 4, 2011

Part One

GlobalCorporate Strategy: Doing a comprehensive analysis

The study questions on Whirlpool for last week are difficult. In the first 30minutes today you will meet ingroups and combine your ideas for acomprehensive strategic analysis/plan for Whirlpool.